Tory Twitter site Menshn launches in US

Tory MP Louise Mensch has launched a rival to Twitter in the US, to appeal to an audience of people frustrated at the global social networking site.

Called Menshn.com – a play on the word ‘mention’ – it allows users in the states to post messages and debate within subject forums. This moves away from the ‘trend’ system used by Twitter, which allows users to comment freely, without being restricted to one topic at a time.

Luke Bozier, a co-founder and former Labour party political adviser, told the Guardian: “We were both frustrated at the way Twitter doesn’t focus on topics. We both love Twitter, but if you want to focus on the election there’s no obvious place to do that online. Twitter is just too random. We wanted to encourage people to have conversations rather than broadcast their thoughts.”

After the recent trial of Frank Zimmerman, a troll who was given a suspended prison sentence for bullying the parliamentarian on Twitter, Ms Mensch has more reason to dislike the site than most users and has often been critical of its capability to inflame tensions, as in the case of the August riots last year.